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Torah Basics
#18
The verse is telling us not to add to nor diminish from the OBSERVANCE of the commandments that G-d commanded in the Five Books of Moses.

First of all, the Jews are commanded to write copies of the Torah scroll of the Five Books of Moses, exactly as the first one was written by Moses.
This means that when a Torah scroll is written (by hand, on parchment), in order to be valid, it must not have any extra letter added, nor any letter missing, and every letter must be written in its correct form (or else it is not counted as a correct letter).

Beyond that, the meaning of "the word which I command you" is the definition that G-d gave for each of His commandments. "Adding" or "diminishing" means changing the definition of the commandment, to make it more than G-d commanded, or less than G-d commanded. Rashi gives this explanation for the meaning of the verse:

"Do not add": for instance,
- by inserting five sections [of written Torah verses] into the tefillin [instead of the four sections that G-d commanded],
- by using five species [of plants] for the [commandment of] lulav [the palm branch waved on Sukkot] instead of four [species of plants, as G-d commanded],
- or by attaching five fringes [to the tallit prayer shawl, instead of four as G-d commanded].
And so too, "nor diminish" [from it, i.e., three fringes on the tallit, instead of four fringes].

The books of Torah Law created by the Sages (e.g., the Shulchan Aruch / Code of Jewish Law) only explain and clarify HOW to do the commandments, as G-d commanded them. I.e., how to make the tallit fringes, how to make the tefillin, how to inspect a lulav / palm branch to know if it is valid or invalid to be waved on Sukkot. So they are not adding or diminishing anything from the basic definitions of the commandments.
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Messages In This Thread
Torah Basics - by Director Michael - 10-07-2007, 05:21 PM
RE: Torah Basics - by rabbiyitz - 07-29-2009, 05:12 PM
Inferred positive aspects - by Hrvatski Noahid - 04-23-2013, 04:11 AM
RE: Torah Basics - by Director Michael - 04-23-2013, 05:26 PM
RE: Torah Basics - by Director Michael - 01-13-2014, 08:24 PM
RE: Torah Basics - by m364n0 - 04-17-2018, 07:01 PM
RE: Torah Basics - by Director Michael - 04-24-2018, 08:16 AM
RE: Torah Basics - by Director Michael - 11-04-2018, 09:30 PM
RE: Oral Torah - by Donny - 10-08-2007, 01:35 AM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by Director Michael - 10-14-2007, 04:31 PM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by rocnoahide - 01-12-2014, 10:28 PM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by oceanoah - 10-16-2007, 07:43 AM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by Director Michael - 10-21-2007, 03:56 PM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by oceanoah - 02-05-2008, 04:36 AM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by Director Michael - 02-06-2008, 02:17 AM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by Daniel2 - 07-27-2009, 09:55 AM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by JohnyPicasso - 03-14-2009, 04:43 AM
RE: Noahide Torah Study - by Director Michael - 03-15-2009, 03:23 PM
Torah - by OlKorekt - 11-04-2018, 06:56 PM

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